


The Perfect First Assignment

by clippedwingsandshotguns



Series: The Newsies Fantasy AU [2]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Its good and gay, Uhhhhh not much to tag, and they kiss, newsbians!, they fight a spider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 10:59:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12209898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clippedwingsandshotguns/pseuds/clippedwingsandshotguns
Summary: As Katherine rides her horse beside Sarah's own, Sarah thinks that maybe being assigned an escort mission wasn't the worst thing to have happened to her.





	The Perfect First Assignment

**Author's Note:**

> This happens before the javid fantasy au fic, but is fine as a standalone story!

"Here's your assignment," the man said, shoving a piece of paper across the table towards her. Sarah snatches the paper up from the table and skims through the content.

"An escort mission?" she asks, exasperated. "I'm a corporal now, Wiesel. Escort missions are better off with someone who's just a guard." Her metal plates clang as she crosses her arms over her chest.

Scoffing, Wiesel leans back in his seat, crossing his arms to mirror Sarah's annoyance. "Firstly, it's 'Sir Wiesel' to you, Jacobs. Secondly, if you at least read the damn assignment, you'd know that we can't get just any town guard for this mission."

Sarah reluctantly drops her gaze back to the paper in her hand.

"It's an escort mission for Lady Katherine Pulitzer. The daughter of Lord Joseph Pulitzer."

"That's the mayor of Ashbourne, right?"

"The one and only."

Sarah unfolds her arms and relents. "Fine," she sighs. She was hoping her first assignment since being promoted would be more exciting than walking some lord's daughter. Glancing at the assignment, she thinks to herself, 'At least it pays well.'

The parchment dictates that she would have to fetch the girl, Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer, from the gates of Ashbourne, and ensure her safety in a diplomatic travel to discuss certain matters with the lord and lady of Ardensvale. Sarah was then expected to return Lady Pulitzer here, to Wolfden, for reasons unstated in the note. Sarah figures she'd ask her later. The travel itself shouldn't take more than a full day, assuming they faced few interruptions, since it was still within the country. But if night sets, they would need to set up camp, given that the forests usually housed bandits and travelling in the dark with a civilian was out of the question.

And so Sarah headed back home to the small house she shared with her two brothers and parents to pack for her newest assignment.

Davey and Sarah may not have twin telepathy but at 17, turning 18, they've lived together long enough for Davey to know when his sister wasn't in the best of moods. Although, with Sarah huffing as she stuffed first aid supplies into one of her satchels, Davey probably didn't need twin telepathy to know she was upset.

"What's wrong?" he asks, concern clear in his tone as he leaned against the door frame of Sarah's room

"Another escort mission. Even though I'm a corporal now," she huffs again, before sitting down on her bed. "I feel like it has to do with me being a girl," Sarah confesses, chewing on her lower lip. "It's not the worst escort mission-- I'll be helping out Joseph Pulitzer's daughter, but any of the other guys could have taken the job."

Davey considers his sister's problem for a bit, before walking across the room and taking a seat right next to her. "Well, escorting the daughter of a mayor isn't a job they can hand to just any town guard or recruit. And the lady might be more comfortable around you, instead of with any of the guys." Davey pauses to nudge his sister's knee with his own. "Either way, the Captain will see that you're just as good and even better than any of those guys out there, and when that happens, you'll be getting only the most important assignment. Hell, you'll be the one giving them out. But for now, you've got a job to do, and you'll do amazingly, as always."

Sarah smiles at this. Growing up together had made them close beyond compare, and they had always felt comforted after confiding in each other. Sarah could never have faced their parents with her true identity and chosen name without Davey backing her up every step of the way. She hugs Davey and thanks him, before shooing him out of her room, saying that she's got lady things to do and pack.

Hours before the crack of dawn, Sarah quietly wakes her parents to let them know that she was leaving, presses a kiss to Les' forehead, and gives Davey a hug, before setting out to make her way to Ashbourne, riding her handsome steed, Vesta.

As the sun began to rise and orange streaks of light painted the sky, Sarah slows Vesta down to a trot and approaches the gate, two nondescript town guards standing guard on either side. It wasn't long before a lady about Sarah's age appeared at the gate, her own horse being pulled along by the reins. From a distance, Sarah noted that the lady had a walk so elegant she seemed to practically float. When the lady drew near, Sarah dismounts her horse and removes her helmet to tuck it under her arm as she takes a bow, as required by guards when in the presence of anyone of importance. The lady curtsies in response, and Sarah takes it as a cue to stand up straight. Now standing face-to-face with her client, Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer, Sarah realises it would be difficult to manage doing anything straight. She was suddenly glad for the years she had spent training as a guard, because only the discipline that she had drilled into herself could stop her from turning red and flustered and ridiculously unprofessional in the presence of the beautiful lady who stood before her.

"Lady Pulitzer, I am Corporal Sarah Jacobs, and I have been assigned to ensure your safety in your travels from here to Ardensvale, and then to return you to Wolfden," Sarah manages to say.

"Please, call me Katherine. And for the entirety of this journey, if you must refer to me by something more formal, refer to me as Miss Plumber, not Lady Pulitzer," the lady, Katherine, asserts in a gentle yet commanding manner that only the women raised in nobility ever managed.

"Of course, Miss Plumber," Sarah nods. "Shall we be on our way, then?"

"Yes. I trust that you know the way there?"

"I do, ma'am."

When Sarah asks if Katherine required assistance in mounting her horse, Katherine takes a glance at the hand that Sarah had offered, raises an eyebrow, and mounts her horse with no difficulty at all despite wearing a skirt that some may describe to be impractical, before smiling down at Sarah from atop her horse. Sarah hides her smile while pulling her helmet back on and mounts her own horse, and the two set off, following the tracks that would lead to the forests and fields and, eventually, Ardensvale.

As Katherine rides her horse beside Sarah's own, Sarah thinks that maybe being assigned an escort mission wasn't the worst thing to have happened to her.

As they ride in silence, with only the sounds of horseshoes clopping over sand and stones, Katherine finds herself drawn towards the lady in armour. 

"Corporal Jacobs?" Katherine calls out, as she slows her horse down to a speed that would make conversation possible.

"Yes, my Ladyship?" Sarah asks, matching Katherine's speed.

"What's your story?" At Sarah's confused look, Katherine felt obliged to elaborate. "Why did you choose to be a guard? So few women do so. It's uncommon, and extremely difficult to progress when all your superiors and colleagues look down on you, is it not?"

Sarah considers the question, and considers the woman who had asked it. She's pretty sure the boring and lowly life of a common guard, corporal or not, would be uninteresting to anyone of noble descent. But as the lady had asked the question, Sarah feels complied to answer. "I suppose there's something about fighting for what's right and helping out those who aren't strong enough to fight for themselves that just calls to me. It's also a bit of a sense of duty, to protect the town that raised my siblings and me well." After a short pause, she decides to address the rest of Katherine's concerns regarding choosing to be a guard. "The other men did… question my abilities when I first joined, but they can't exactly complain once you've bested every single one of them in combat. I imagine you face similar difficulties when handling politics?"

Katherine hums in agreement. Before a silence can fall between them, Sarah speaks up again.

"Miss Plumber, may I ask you a question as well?"

Katherine bites back her usual response of 'you just did', and instead says "Go ahead."

"Why are you interested in the life of a common guard? Surely there's nothing particularly riveting about it," and Sarah is genuinely curious. She's had run-ins with royalty and noblemen before, and quite commonly, too. The nature of her job has her doing anything from escort missions of the less important nobles, and standing guard when the mayor of Wolfden holds exclusive get-togethers for only the upper class at their lavish home. Despite that, the only thing any noble has ever said to her is to ask for directions.

Katherine tries not to answer with the real reason she's intrigued by her escort. The woman, Sarah Jacobs, is beautiful beyond compare, and Katherine had found herself drawn towards her instantly, from the soft brown locks of hair she keeps tied in a practical and neat ponytail under her helmet, to the casual yet confident stance that she had held when introducing herself. Not to mention, there was something undeniably attractive about a woman in armour, and one who can fight, at that. Katherine forcefully attempts to keep herself from imagining how Sarah might look, sans the bulky metal plates of armour. Katherine concedes that it was in no way her fault that Sarah Jacobs was so damn pretty that she just needed to find any excuse she could conjure up to learn more about her.

But none of these reasons were possible answers to Sarah's question, and Katherine stammers in trying to find an acceptable answer. "Well, um-- see, I-- I've just… not met a corporal who was also a woman? It's fairly rare! Guards in general? They're always men!"

Sarah gives her a confused look -- which Katherine notes to herself is adorable and makes her heart melt -- but seems to accept Katherine's poorly-worded, on-the-spot answer anyways. Sarah, on the other hand, was actually trying not to cry at how cute Katherine looked, stammering and embarrassed, and tries her best not to hope that Katherine might truly be interested in her.

A few seconds passed before Katherine speaks up again. "So, Jacobs. You're a corporal?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sarah answers curtly.

"How long have you been training? To be a guard, I mean. Are you aiming to be a Captain some day?"

Sarah bites her lip to keep from smiling. The lady seemed to be full of questions, and it was endearing. Sarah figures that the curiosity stemmed from her working in politics as well as her family background, allowing her the luxury of pursuing any information that she had the mind to ask about. "I got recruited at 16, which isn't as young as Wolfden will allow, but they were reluctant to take me at 15, on account of me being a girl." Sarah hums in thought. "I'd been training fighting with and without weapons, since I was about 7, though. They couldn't find a reason to stop me from joining when I beat all the other recruits in sparring. And yes, I do aim to be Captain some day. I think these men need to see that a woman can be every bit a leader and a fighter as them."

Katherine smiles at this, as Sarah's words resonate with her own ideals, and she begins talking about the frustratingly infinite number of times that she's been talked down to by some older 'gentleman'. There'd even been one who had asked her to get him tea while he awaited his host to discuss certain matters regarding trade with him. She had to clench her jaw and calmly tell him that she was not a maid to be ordered around, and that she was the one he would be conferencing with that day. Needless to say, both women had collected an impressive number of times during which people had thought less of them and treated them as such.

Throughout all this talk, Sarah manages to miss most of the content. Instead, she's fixated on the animated way that Miss Plumber would turn suddenly to face her, arms up in exasperation, as her curled reddish-brown locks bounced about her shoulders. As if the actions Katherine made while speaking weren't distracting enough, she also had the most captivating voice. Sarah swears she could listen to the lady talk about all of the most mundane things in the world and she would still be entranced.

Nonetheless, Sarah was Katherine's escort and guard first, and her secret admirer second. So when a quiet crunch was heard from within the forest, off the path they were travelling on, Sarah immediately reaches an arm out across Katherine's chest, signalling for her to stop moving. Katherine stops her horse, but finds herself tempted to ask what the matter was. She refrains when she sees that Sarah's other hand has a finger pressed to her lips in an urgent request for silence.

Eventually, something does leap out from behind some shrubbery, and with the light that streams through the canopy, Sarah can see the pointed tip of a long, shiny black leg stabbing the ground in front of them. The other 7 legs, each longer than either of the women, followed suit, scurrying out from behind thick plantation and into plain sight, disrupting Sarah and Katherine's path. Numerous beady eyes stared unnervingly at them, and a pincer-like mouth twitches open and shut repeatedly as the creature takes note of the presence before it.

"Miss Plumber, stay back," Sarah warns as she braces herself on Vesta, ready to jump off and swing at the large beast as soon as Katherine is a safe distance away. Katherine, to Sarah's thankful relief, tugs lightly at the reins of her steed, bringing it into a slow trot away from the creature. The slowness of the movements keeps the creature from being aggravated to attack, Sarah notices, before quietly thanking the heavens for making them face off with a creature that did not attack at the tiniest movement. 

With Katherine a little ways behind her, Sarah readjusts her footing atop the horse, and without a moment's notice, she pushes off from the horse, unsheathing the sword as she leaps straight towards the creature. Vesta flees in surprise and takes refuge closer to where Katherine is watching, mouth agape in equal amounts of admiration and shock. Despite its large stature, the freakish spider manages to lift one of its legs quickly to block the blow of Sarah's long sword.

With the momentum that she had built up for the attack, the spider's block ends up sending her crashing to the ground, but Sarah is quick enough to roll back into a crouch, before charging at the spider again.

This time, the beast raises a leg to slice at her before she comes close enough to attack, and Sarah breaks into a roll to the side before running closer, not losing any speed. With the creature in range, Sarah raises her sword to attack, but it manages to retreat quickly, raising a leg to its defense, and Sarah loses her opening, her sword clashing again with another leg.

Suddenly, something impales the side of the creature's head, and the spider reverses, its front few legs raised into the air in either pain or anger, Sarah can't tell. She does manage to throw a glance over her shoulder, to capture the moment in her memory, saving the view of Katherine Plumber, standing straight and tall, and holding a bow triumphantly in front of her after successfully shooting an arrow, streams of light falling gently over her. Sarah forces herself to focus -- she can revisit that image later -- and takes the distraction to dash towards the spider. She ducks between legs, and dodges the angry stomps of one its front legs, before falling to her knees to slide under it, and raising her sword up above her head.

There's a satisfying crack as the sword breaks through exoskeleton and pierces into the creature, Sarah's strength lifting it into the air a little further as the spider's frantic kicking comes to a sudden stop. She grabs the hilt of her sword and drags it down the length of the creature's body, ensuring its death as best she can, before pushing it over to fall on its side, clearing the path for travel once more.

All things considered, it's clearly a victory, but the spider innards that had so kindly coated all of her armour plates on her right arm and shoulder are inclined to disprove that. Sarah scoffs in disgust as she flicks her arm out next to her, some of the viscous greyish blue liquids splattering to the ground as a result. When she returns to Katherine's side, she caresses Vesta's muzzle with her clean hand, a silent apology for shocking her earlier.

"I didn't realise you were an archer." Sarah says, and it's a statement but the question behind it is clear, so Katherine answers.

"Well, I don't carry a bow and arrows around just for show," she says. Sarah had truthfully been too distracted by Katherine's beauty to have noticed.

"Honestly, Miss Plumber--"

"Katherine. Just, call me Katherine. Or Kath. No need for formalities, please?" Katherine interrupts.

"As you wish, Katherine. You can call me Sarah, if you'd like," Sarah offers, and Katherine smiles in response. "Honestly, Katherine, I didn't expect you to be such a good shot. A little bit lower and that arrow could have taken me right out."

"I had the option of pursuing a career with my archery skills, but I figured I'd rather work my hand at politics. It pays better," she jokes.

Sarah takes a step towards Katherine, and she decides that she can afford to take a chance. Staring deep into Katherine's eyes, Sarah breathes out, "You were really good." She tries to convey emotions beyond what her words say, eyes dipping down for a quick glance to her lips before darting back to look her straight in the eyes, searching for any sign of reciprocation.

Katherine has always been good with dealing with flirtations. Usually, they'd be thrown her way by a man with an awfully cocky smirk, and it would take one witty line to destroy his ego and convey her disinterest all at once. But when the person happened to be one of the most beautiful people Katherine had ever set her eyes on, trying to remain tough while vulnerable and searching for some kind of sign, she has no idea what to do.

A part of her, the one that's mostly just reckless abandon and a rebellious attitude, wants nothing more than to just pull Sarah in for a kiss, spider blood be damned, before running away to a little cottage in the middle of nowhere.

A more logical and risk-adverse part of her forces her to pull her eyes away from the intense and magnetic stare of her escort, and laugh it off nervously with a 'thanks'. Katherine can feel her face flush, and she hopes that it's a sign enough for Sarah to keep trying, just long enough for her inner romantic to wake up, smell the roses, and get the girl. But right now, they have a town to get to.

They travel in silence for a long while, before Sarah hears the distant sound of rushing water and calls out, "Hey, Katherine?"

"What is it?"

"I think there's a river a little ways from here. Mind if we make a quick stop so that I can clean my arm?" Sarah frowns at the drying fluids that coat her shoulder plate.

Glancing over, Katherine finds Sarah swiping at the blood, only to grimace when it gets onto her gloves as well, and she lets out a small laugh. "Of course, Sarah," she answers.

They continue to travel in relative silence, before Sarah leads the way onto a path less travelled which led through thicker canopies before revealing a small clearing and a rushing river.

"Sorry for the detour, but this shouldn't take long," Sarah says, getting off Vesta before tying the reins of her horse to the low branch of a tree. Katherine follows suit, dismounting her own horse with ease and grace. Walking towards the river, Sarah removes her helmet again, and stray strands of hair that had come loose under her helmet whips around her from the strong breeze. 

Katherine is skilled with her words and that's a fact, but the fact of the matter at hand was that none of the words in the world could describe how beautiful Sarah Jacobs looked, helmet in her hands as she looked out towards the river and the sun hanging low in the sky, illuminating her figure with a golden lining. Katherine counts herself lucky because Sarah is too busy surveying the area before settling down to clean her gear to even notice the way Katherine stared longingly at her. She makes her way to Sarah, who was in the process of yanking her leather gloves off her hands while sitting with one leg folded in front of her, and the other pulled up to her chest so that she could rest her arm more comfortably on her knee. Sitting down across from Sarah with her legs tucked under herself, Katherine asks, "Do you need any help?"

"It's fine," Sarah says waving her off as she chucks her gloves aside. "I don't think i want my gloves wet for the rest of today, so I think I'll just clean the metal plates." Sarah can and has removed her armour herself, having insisted to her brothers that it was something she'd need to be able to manage on her own. But Katherine is clever and observant, and she knows that Sarah is right-handed, because she keeps her long sword on her right hand, and she tucks her helmet under her left arm, which meant that she would have at least a bit more difficulty removing her dirtied plates of armour. 

Katherine shifts closer towards Sarah, entering her personal space, and she catches Sarah's eye to make sure that there wasn't any form of objection before she reaches over to unbuckle the leather straps that secured her armour in place. The usual objections that Sarah normally had when being given unneeded assistance died instantly on her lips when Katherine's eyes met her own, and her hands worked quickly to undo the strap. When the plate around her bicep was removed, Katherine gently puts it aside and then continues to remove the greaves on Sarah's forearms. Sarah finds no reason to resist, letting Katherine guide her hand to rest in her lap as she did so. The leather straps came undone with ease, and Katherine places it down as well. 

Despite both of their desires to be close to the other, those were the only two majorly affected pieces of armour, and without an excuse to be close, Katherine shifts back to where she had sat down. Sarah breathes out a word of thanks, finding it difficult to say anything else. They sit in silence for a while, Katherine watching idly as Sarah scratches drying blood off the plates in the rushing water.

When the plates were clean, neither of them says a word as Katherine takes them from Sarah's hand, and Sarah inches closer to be more easily assisted. She puts the larger plate around Sarah's bicep, first, and then straps her greaves onto her forearm, pulling the leather strap tightly, and then letting her fingers linger on Sarah's arm for just a moment too long. They both notice, but neither one of them acknowledges it, Sarah merely murmuring a second word of thanks as they return to their horses.

* * *

As an expected result of their detour and a few more battles with the wildlife, night falls several hours before they reach Ardensvale. Since the river, the travel had been smooth-sailing and uninterrupted, and they found entertainment between lapses of silence with conversation amd questions about the other's life. Sarah learns that Katherine chooses to go by her deceased mother's last name, both in honour of her as well as to reduce her affiliation to a father that she doesn't care much for. In return, Sarah shares about her own family: her beloved twin brother and their sweet baby brother, as well as her loving parents who lived back in Wolfden. 

"Oh, Kath! I've been curious to know why I'm escorting you to Wolfden, instead of back to Ashbourne." Sarah had said, as she skinned a bird that Katherine had managed to shoot out of the sky while she had watched, feeling impressed and very attracted.

"I needed to get away from my father. You know how it is. He was disappointed I wasn't going to take over his position, but at least he was…kind enough to give me money to start my own life and job in Wolfden. Granted, I'm pretty sure he's only letting me go to Wolfden, specifically, because he has people there to keep an eye on me."

Sarah had hummed in acknowledgement, sticking a relatively clean, sharpened stick through the bird, ready to place it over the fire that they had started. "It's a start, at least," she had said, silently thankful for whatever spy Joseph Pulitzer had inside Wolfden, because she doesn't want to guess how life would have gone without ever having met Katherine.

Now, with the sky rapidly turning dark, Sarah finds a suitable clearing to set up a temporary camp, which would consist solely of a campfire to keep warm, and a roll of cloth, specifically for Katherine to sleep on.

"This is for you," Sarah says, unrolling the cloth and laying it out on the floor. Katherine watches as Sarah proceeds to walk around the campsite, picking up any flammable pieces of wood as she walks. After gathering enough, she returns to where Katherine sat on her sheet of cloth, hugging her knees to her chest.

As Sarah drops here collection of sticks and wood and leaves into a pile on the ground, Katherine pipes up, "Where will you be sleeping, Sarah?"

Sarah doesn't look up, choosing to focus on getting a fire going before the cold winds of nighttime makes it harder to get a spark. She uses a dagger to cut grooves into a flat piece of wood as she answers. "Against a tree, probably," she huffs, dropping the flat piece of wood to the ground beside her in exchange for a sturdy rod of wood to use as a spindle. She uses the dagger to sharpen the rod, before striking it against the grooves in the board, making sparks over the tinder nest.

"Well, that doesn't sound very comfortable," Katherine says, pouting slightly as she strides over to crouch down next to Sarah. The tinder nest finally catches fire, and Sarah lets the fire burn, fanning the flames a little. 

"I'm supposed to be escorting you, not comfortable," Sarah answers, looking up from the flames and straight into Katherine's eyes, who raises an eyebrow in response. Sarah continues, "Plus, it's not like I can be very comfortable when I'm wearing all this armour."

"Take it off, then," Katherine says, still unsatisfied.

"Not a chance. What if we get attacked?"

"Do you really believe there are foes fearsome enough that we couldn't take them on the moment you're not wearing your armour?"

Sarah's getting impatient and very confused. Why does it matter how comfortably she sleeps? She's a corporal, for heaven's sake, and one night of sleeping in armour is barely an issue. She's had quests that lasted several nights and she had to spend all of them fully geared-up and with one eye open at all times. The rare battles against dragons or a horde of orcs, whenever either reared their heads, would last days, sometimes lasting to over a week of battle and fighting and fatigue. Sarah doesn't answer Katherine's question, instead choosing to walk over to Vesta, where she takes a satchel that had been hanging from it's neck and took out a handful of small fruits and berries.

"Here," she says, holding her palm of fruits out to Katherine, who gratefully takes one with thanks. She pops a grape into her mouth and watches, as Sarah does the same, both enjoying the heat of the bonfire as they did.

"I still think you should sleep more comfortably," Katherine eventually asserts.

Sarah sighs with frustration, but Katherine sees that she's not particularly bothered. "Even if I did remove my armour, I still wouldn't have a better place to sleep than against the tree. I wasn't planning om being comfortable, so I only brought one sheet for you."

"Sleep with me, then," Katherine says, almost immediately, because she knows that thinking on it for too long would make her chicken out. 

Sarah ends up swallowing the berry she had just put in her mouth whole. "What?" she manages to ask, as she shoves the rest of them back into her satchel.

"The sheet is wide enough for both of us to lie down on," Katherine says, now shy and averting her eyes.

Sarah's not stupid. They might have just met but she's observant enough to have noticed Katherine's lingering glances before bashfully turning away, or the way they'd gaze into each other's eyes for just a moment too long, or the way that Katherine laughs nervously as soon as her eyes drop to Sarah's lips for even a fraction of a second. And she's sure Katherine is clever enough to have noticed her doing the exact same things. But Katherine is her client, and the daughter of the mayor of Ashbourne, and possibly going to be one of the many people she sees on a day-to-day basis in Wolfden, and Sarah is not stupid enough to act on something that she can't ensure will end well. She's not exactly sure what to do, when the most beautiful woman she's ever seen is inviting her to sleep close to her, when that same woman is someone she's meant to be guarding. She sighs loudly.

"Katherine, what…what is this?" Sarah asks, gesturing vaguely between the two of them. 

It isn't the answer Katherine had been expecting, and she's not sure she knows how to answer. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Kath, if there's something here, you have to tell me, because I'm not-- I don't want to be… I'm here because it's my duty and I don't want to screw anything up on my job regardless of if I like you."

Katherine ignores the way her breath is caught in her throat when Sarah calls her 'Kath'. She's never met a girl that was this easy to talk to, one who checked every box on her list, and then some she hadn't even known she had. She's never met someone like Sarah, who was strong and beautiful, smart and kind. And nobody has ever made her feel as smitten as she does now. So Katherine puts a hand gently over Sarah's and says, "Of course there's something here."

Sarah turns, and she stares at Katherine, her hair illuminated by the fire that they were seated next to. Staring deep into Katherine's eyes, Sarah sees the reflection of flames dancing and licking at the air above, and she sees how the shadows flicker on Katherine's face. She wonders what Katherine, eyes locked together.

The night air is cold, a stark contrast to the warmth of the flames, of Katherine's hand on Sarah's, and of the heat growing in their chests. Brave and steadfast, Katherine reaches out and cups Sarah's cheek, gentle as a breeze. Sarah glances at the hand, leaning into the touch, before looking back towards Katherine. They drown in each other's eyes for what feels like an eternity.

Sarah leans forward first. Duty, this assignment, her worries all completely forgotten in her mind. The very moment their lips had touched, Sarah could see no further than Katherine. Her thoughts were solely focused on the woman she was kissing, and all she saw was Katherine's face. All she felt were Katherine's lips on hers, Katherine's hair in her hand, and Katherine's hands gripping her face. The kiss was soft but urgent, and it was a long, beautiful stretch of time before Sarah finally pulls away, opening her eyes to see Katherine whose face was clearly flushed, even with only the orange light of flames on her cheeks.

They catch their breaths, still mere inches apart, both smiling. It isn't long before Katherine leans in again, and sends a less-than-innocent smile Sarah's way. "Kiss me again," she says.

Sarah happily obliges.

* * *

When they wake, Katherine is happy, knowing that she had succeeded, both in getting Sarah to remove her armour (or, more accurately, in removing Sarah's armour herself), as well as in convincing Sarah to sleep by her side. She looks across the bonfire, where the early morning light just barely illuminates Sarah's figure as she puts her plates of armour back on. Katherine gets up and sneaks up behind Sarah, who had been facing the other way, surprising her with a kiss to the corner of her lips. It gets the reaction that Katherine had wanted: a beautiful smile and a quick peck on the lips. She smiles back at Sarah, and then proceeds to take the metal plate from Sarah's hands and to strap them onto her, the same way she had, what felt like so long ago.

As she does this, Sarah speaks. "Will you still be mine when we return to Wolfden?"

Katherine laughs. "Of course I will," she says, and Sarah smiles again. 

They make their way to Ardensvale soon after that, with little incident, so that Katherine can confer with the mayor there. When they head back to Wolfden, a new life ahead of both of them, they take their time, sneaking long kisses in the privacy of the woods.

**Author's Note:**

> And they lived happily ever after.


End file.
